How economics killed the antibiotic dream

Source: BBC

By Tim Harford

BBC World Service, 50 Things That Made the Modern Economy

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On a ramshackle pig farm near Wuxi, in Jiangsu province, China, a foreigner gets out of a taxi.The family are surprised. Their little farm is at the end of a bumpy track through rice paddies, and they do not get many foreigners asking to use the toilet.

The stranger’s name is Philip Lymbery, and he runs a campaigning group called Compassion in World Farming.As he explains in his book about intensive farming, he is not there to berate the farmers about their pigs’ living conditions, although sows are crammed uncomfortably into crates.

Mr Lymbery is there to investigate whether pig manure is polluting the local waterways.He has tried unsuccessfully to visit local large, commercial farms, so has turned up on spec at a family farm instead.